China's Galwan saga: Facts vs fiction
India TodayAfter eight months of deafening silence, the Chinese authorities have disclosed identities of their four soldiers killed during the Galwan valley clash last year. A purported diary piece written by one of the soldiers who died in the clash has been quoted in the article to suggest that the Indian troops crossed the line and outnumbered the PLA in the Galwan river valley. Satellite imagery taken hours after the June 16 violent clashes confirm a disproportionately large PLA contingent against a thinly spread Indian deployment, which was actively playing its part in the disengagement process. Surprisingly, the authors of the PLA daily article, as well as the soldiers' diary, presumably written during the peak of the standoff, used the common phrase "foreign troops" for the Indian troops. Packed with dramatic idioms and patriotic quotes attributed to the PLA soldiers and officers, the Chinese version of the Galwan story stresses heavily on the claim that the "foreign troops" crossed the line and the Chinese troops drove them out without losing any territory.